Moliere's 'Tartuffe' finds new life in the heart of Texas: theater review

It may be 350 years since Molière wrote "Tartuffe," but, by
gosh, that thar play still makes for rip-roaring theatre fun. Director Tobias Andersen's Post Five Theatre production, which sets
Constance Congdon's recent translation of the comedy in a down-home Texas milieu, gives
this satire of religious hypocrisy and human gullibility fresh and vibrant life.

Molière found that even being friends with the Sun King,
Louis XIV, didn't prevent those who were offended by his play from keeping it
off the stage for five years after it was originally written in 1664. "Tartuffe" faces no such obstacles to staging nowadays, but we certainly still have our share of religious con-men, who find all sorts of ways, including television
pulpits and telephone solicitations, to reach into our pocketbooks. To emphasize the contemporary relevance of
the action, Andersen's Post Five production locates the play deep in the present-day
Bible Belt. The action unfolds in Molière, Texas, and the
cast members all speak with the appropriate Lone Star State twang.

With the exception of a few bumpy moments, Andersen's strong
company handles Congdon's verse rendition of Molière well, skillfully stressing
Congdon's rhyming patterns when they add to the comic effect. The translation might not have the
effervescence of Richard Wilber's well-known version of the play, but there's a
playfully concrete vividness to both the dialogue and these characters that the cast
enthusiastically embraces.

Garland Lyons takes on
the title role of Tartuffe and carries it off with panache. He is the perfect oily hypocrite. Controlled, controlling and crafty, Lyons'
Tartuffe plays the meticulous prude and the self-tormented martyr to the hilt
when situations require him to do so, but Lyons also lets us see the
self-satisfied scam artist as well as the lascivious lecher that underlies such
"performances." His smug smirk as, alone
on stage, he thoughtfully munches on an apple at the close of the production's
first act is wonderfully telling.

The characters around Tartuffe are all neatly individualized
and humorously drawn. As Orgon, Tartuffe's gullible benefactor and stooge,
Keith Gable is solid.
He is obstinate but well-meaning, so even as he bellows his
faith in the slippery Tartuffe, we can't help but like him. His verbal duels with the insistent, always knowingly clever servant Dorine, played with a splendid sense
of comic timing and an easy intimacy
with the audience by Sarah Peters, make for
some of the play's most hilarious moments.
For her take on Orgon's wife, Elmire, Christy Drogosch, adeptly mixes sweetness with a simple sharp
clear-sightedness that at times seems to channel Dolly Parton. As Orgon's daughter, Marianne, and her lover
Valere, Chelsie Kinney and Dennis Kelly are
delightfully doltish but earnest.
Phillip J. Berns is fun
and fiery as Orgon's son Damis, and Tori Padellford is
broadly entertaining as Tartuffe's energetically headstrong, Bible-thumping
matriarch of a mother.

Anderson keeps the action moving at a nice clip and smartly reinforces
the Texas tone of the play by interpolating country and western songs between
Moliere's original acts. With some
support from Jim Davis on guitar and Sarah Peters on the fiddle, Larry Wilder with his guitar, banjo and yodeling skills
makes these musical links between acts a high point of the evening. By the play's end, we all wanted to sing along.